US: no N. Korean troop action to back up rhetoric

The White House said Monday that despite days of bellicose rhetoric, North Korea had yet to back up its threats with mass troop mobilizations or troop movements.

With tensions on the Korean peninsula rising ever higher, Washington reiterated that it took Pyongyang's war talk seriously but also noted that threats and warnings were nothing new from the isolated state.

"Despite the harsh rhetoric we're hearing from Pyongyang, we are not seeing changes to the North Korean military posture, such as large-scale mobilizations and positioning of forces," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"We haven't seen action to back up the rhetoric," Carney said, adding, "what that disconnect between the rhetoric and actions means, I'll leave to the analysts to judge."

Washington has warned North Korea that it will take robust efforts to defend its allies in Asia and repeatedly tells Pyongyang to stand down its nuclear program and that its "unproductive" rhetoric is self-defeating.

Earlier, the US military said it had deployed stealth fighters to South Korea as part of an ongoing joint military exercise that has triggered dire North Korean threats of armed retribution.

Two F-22 Raptor fighters arrived in the South on Sunday to participate in the annual "Foal Eagle" exercise that will last until April 30, a spokesman for the US forces in South Korea told AFP.

In an earlier show of force, Washington last week dispatched two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers from their base in Missouri on a 13,000 mile round trip over South Korea.

On Saturday, North Korea declared it had entered a "state of war" with South Korea and warned Seoul and Washington that any provocation would swiftly escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict.

South Korea and the United States have met the near-daily threats from Pyongyang with their own warnings of severe repercussions, fuelling international concern that the situation might spiral out of control.